Facebook on Thursday announced that it has shut down Free Basics in India.
But why should India be talking to the Taliban in the first place? There is no love lost there. India will never forget or forgive the humiliation to which the Taliban subjected it in the IC-814 hijack, notes Shekhar Gupta.
BJP President Amit Shah has authorised Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu to liaise with M Thambidurai and TTV Dinakaran from the Sasikala camp, just in case it turns against the BJP after the income tax raids on its health minister C Vijayabaskar.
The US has all along interfered in India-China issues. The objective is clear: Bring the Sino-Indian standoff to a flashpoint that would compel Modi government to take shelter under an American umbrella, argues Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
'Tehran senses that the Modi government is inexorably gravitating toward the US-Israeli-Saudi axis, jettisoning India's traditional independent Gulf policies,' notes Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
The city needs some autonomy, or it will continue to decline in all the ways that are familiar, observes T N Ninan
Prime Minister Narendra Modi left behind a "thirsty" and "frustrated" Bangladesh as the two countries could not reach an accord on the Teesta river water sharing issue during his visit to Dhaka, Chinese official media said on Monday.
M Karunanidhi was a masterful practitioner of modern-day politics, wielding considerable influence beyond his own state, in the corridors of power in New Delhi, for a long time and sewing up alliances with both the Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Referring to COVID-19, she said her husband's administration will not stop fighting until there is an effective treatment and vaccine available to everyone.
She will replace controversial Brett Kavanaugh who endured a bitter confirmation battle last year after President Donald Trump named him to the US Supreme Court.
The government had on Wednesday issued a statement dismissing report of Moody's Analytics.
'The sentiment against immigrants and particularly against Muslims is produced by the climate of hatred and bigotry we see all around us.' 'It is produced by the politics of division and spread by a reckless media around the world including unfortunately in India,' says Aakar Patel.
Former India captains Bishan Singh Bedi and Gundappa Viswanath are yet to get an invite from the BCCI for country's historic 500th Test match against the visiting New Zealand side starting September 22 in Kanpur. With the Test match starting on Thursday, neither 69-year-old Bedi who has led India in 22 Tests nor Viswanth, who captained in two Tests have received any written or telephonic communication from the Board. "Till this evening, I have not received any invitation. And I am not at all annoyed about it. It's BCCI's event and it's their prerogative to invite whomsoever they want to. At this stage of my life, I can't get bitter about all these things," the left-arm spin wizard told PTI.
Owaisi's five seats in Bihar's Muslim-majority Seemanchal region ought to ring alarm bells, observes Virendra Kapoor.
As we eagerly wait to see what 'farq' it makes when it hits the screens on June 28, Sukanya Verma looks at the few occasions caste came up in Hindi movies.
Top officials of the environment ministry, Delhi Development Authority and municipal commissioners also stayed away from the deliberations.
Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan today criticised multilateral institutions like the IMF and the World Bank saying "they are not immune to cognitive capture".
In a rare gesture, China's official media in Beijing on Tuesday extended its biggest coverage to an Indian political event projecting Narendra Modi's takeover as Prime Minister as a harbinger of "big boost" to China-India relations.
Political parties united to accuse Bhagwant Mann, a lawmaker from AAP, of compromising Parliament security.
As the JNU row escalates, a look at student unrest on the big screen.
The Budget would have been the perfect vehicle to introduce some bold initiatives.
That opportunity has been lost through this Budget, observes Shreekant Sambrani.
Narasimha Rao's 'crime' was to end 'proprietary control' of Nehru-Gandhi family on the party, according to a new book.
If you think the film is gutsy, you are simply being blind to the truth that the whole men-are-worthless slant is saleable right now, argues Sreehari Nair.
The chief minister dug out appointments of parliamentary secretaries by the Congress and the BJP governments in the national capital in the past and said many of them including Ajay Maken, who had held the post, even had his own staff and access to important official files.
'Is a woman's integrity decided on the basis of her wardrobe and sexual confidence?' 'Guilty questions such primitive beliefs and the whole 'she asked for it' mentality,' says Sukanya Verma.
'If on the back of the resentment against the Modi government, on the very outside chance that the Congress emerges as the single largest party in May 2019, will Rahul Gandhi become prime minister?' 'Or will he do a Sonia and appoint someone else?' asks T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan.
'Does Deepika not have the right to raise her voice in a democratic and peaceful manner on an issue she considers important?' 'Why should one view her only as an actor and not appreciate her role as a concerned citizen of the country?' ask Aftab Alam and Mohammad Asim Siddiqui.
Trump also attacks Russia uranium deal, calling it 'modern-day Watergate'.
Sukanya Verma lists her five BEST and WORST Bollywood movies of 2019.
A realistic approach towards tax and stock taking is necessary, rather than the old narrative of bringing all petroleum products under GST and playing the blame-the-state game.
Out of 3.3 crore applicants, over 19 lakh people were excluded from the final NRC published on Saturday.
Naipaul wrote more than 30 books of fiction and nonfiction during his career with a sharp critique of established religion and politicians characterising much of his work.
In fact, given the current tensions and massed troops on both sides, there is a danger that the LAC will become more like the Line of Control with Pakistan, a heavily fortified and strongly defended border where weapon fire exchanges regularly occur. Indeed, Stratfor Worldview research has listed a sharp increase in new Chinese facilities along the LAC in 2019-20.
He said the 'toxic combination of deep distrust, pervasive fear and a sense of hopelessness in our society' is stifling economic activity and growth.
Investors are already factoring in the impact. The IT Index on the BSE exchange dipped 2.5 per cent, with Infosys, Wipro and TCS showing a decline.
Nobel laureate Kailash Satyarthi, described child slavery as the "most heinous crime against humanity."
'A fierce crusader against communalism, George joined hands with majoritarian forces, never to revisit or re-assess his saffron association.' 'He was a Union minister in 1998-2004, a time when people like Graham Staines were lynched in Orissa.' 'On the Gujarat pogrom of 2002, George went on to kind of justify the slashing of pregnant women, by saying in the Lok Sabha that this was nothing new for India.' 'Thus, he was in sharp contrast to what he had himself stood for in the heyday of his political career in the 1970s and 1980s, says Mohammad Sajjad.
'This is a historic juncture when the US is in great need of an alliance with India to strengthen its hands in the fierce struggle with China in the Asian theatre,' points out Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
